Month: August 2017

Welcome to the last stop of the Dress up this Town Blog tour! I intended to come to you today with my review of the new Love Notions Cadence Dress & Top. I was lucky enough to test the pattern, but alas, I had some sewing mishaps and as a result, I have no pictures for you. Sad face. You can see some awesome tester pics when you click on the link though! 🙂 So, I’ll fill you in on my experience, sans visuals. Just use your imagination! Haha!

First, a quick rundown of my thoughts on the pattern:

It’s well put together and I find the directions easy to follow.

Tank version utilizes the burrito roll technique. I love a good burrito! Both in sewing and in my belly! I had a little trouble pulling my fabric through the tank strap, but that may have been due to the thickness of my fabric. Or user error.

Nice summertime garment piece. Whether you sew the top or the dress, it’s just one of those easy, simple styles you can throw on and look good wearing.

Options! I love that Tami offers multiple options in her patterns. This one comes with a variety of sleeve and hem length (including top and dress) options.

Tutorials! I also love that Tami so frequently includes a little education in her patterns. I always learn something when I’m sewing Love Notions. I enjoy that.

As usual, pattern has layers, is no trim, and can be printed in large format.

My experience:

Welp, I sewed up my quick fit dress with no adjustments. The dart point was a touch high, but it was workable. I haven’t worked with woven in a long time. It’s so funny to think that a couple years ago I was TERRIFIED of working with knits. Now I sew with them so often I feel like I have no idea what to do when I’m handling woven. I think to myself, “Oh I can just ease that in a bit.” NO, NO YOU CAN’T! IT DOESN’T STRETCH. Dummy.

The testing period extended because Tami wanted to perfect the fit.* Then I suddenly had to go out of town to visit family. So I brought the dress with me. And a sewing machine. (Yes, I am that kind of crazy.) I took out my basting stitches and sewed the final version for pics.

NOPE. Nopity, nope, nope. The darts were all wrong on this one. And I mean ALL WRONG. It ended about 2 inches above my bust point. I am not sure exactly what happened between my basted version and final version that the dart got so far off. My working theory is gnomes. Little troublemakers.

I haven’t done many darts, so I couldn’t troubleshoot to fix it fast enough for pics. So, I put my Cadence in timeout. Because it was hurting my baby brain. I will take it out in a few days and attempt to make the appropriate adjustments (Tami did include a tutorial for that!). Hopefully, I’ll have pics to share with you all soon! In the meantime, learn from my mistakes. Vertical adjustments are your friend! In my case, I think my bust point is lower than the pattern’s (because I have a super long torso, this is an adjustment I’ve had to make before). Stay tuned for my future victory post on darts and the Cadence dress and top! Until then…womp, womp. (I mean, this is a blog about my sewing (mis)adventures…) Now go forth and Rafflecopter!

*Let me just take a moment to appreciate Tami’s testing process. Because it is spectacular. I’ve tested for her for about a year. I’ve also tested for several other pattern designers. Tami is one of the best; she really considers the feedback she’s given and she extends the testing period if needed. She does not rush out a pattern for the sake of getting it out there. I really appreciate that about her.